Just a heads-up, I may have written east a couple times when I meant to write west. Sorry about that.

Also, sorry for the late update, been very busy lately. Plus, I violently murdered my finger and hand (it wasn't that violent) and needed time to heal before I could write effectively (time efficiently) again. (Pffft, what a stupid lie)

Chapter 7: God Sent Us West

Silence seemed to echo around the table and throughout the six people seated at it. Though the entire cafeteria was bustling with talk and laughter, one particular table remained dead silent, creating its own separate atmosphere, completely oblivious to the rest of the room.

Names had been exchanged previously, but now a dense, silent atmosphere became apparent.

That atmosphere was shattered by a subtle 'clack' as Joshua Graham laid his pistol in the center of the table; he then proceeded to spin the gun. The gun spun on its side for a few seconds before the barrel settled its gaze on Yang Xiao Long.

"Ask," Joshua Graham requested. Silence was dominant once more for the next few seconds, but the questions eventually flowed through.

"Where are you from?" Yang asked, quietly devouring the school meal in front of her. Six decided to slip his helmet off, placing it on the table in front of him and revealing a head of messy brown hair and a set of delicate blue eyes. His face was clean-shaven and a pair of circular scars showed themselves on his fore head. He quickly ruffled his hair and straightened it out, pushing it to the right before offering a reply.

"West." He said

"That's it?" came a response from Blake Belladonna as she set down one of her many books.

"Far west." Was the reply from Six

"No, she means a name." retorted Weiss, a permanent scowl plastered onto her face, clearly untrusting of the three newcomers.

Six threw a quick glance over to his companions, who were seated beside himself, before replying with, "A place called The Mojave Wasteland."

It was at this moment that Ulysses had realised the absence of one of the four female teammates, so he questioned her whereabouts.

"There were four of you." He said, not even posing it as a question, but they seemed to catch on to his subtly placed question.

"Oh," Yang replied, "Ruby said she needed to do something really important when she saw you three."

The three Wastelanders looked to each other, "Did she specify?" Graham asked

"No, but she shot off really quickly. Let's just carry on…"

Meanwhile…

Ruby Rose snuck discreetly through the door to the Wastelanders' dorm, hoping to go unnoticed.

The moment she saw the Wastelanders near weaponless; she had sped off to find their dorm room. The young girl had absolutely no idea which dorm was theirs, so she had ended up breaking into multiple dorm rooms using some unknown strategy to do so without eliciting a single sound or breaking a single door.

She tiptoed in a stealthy manor, dashing between several tables, chairs and beds as a means of cover to remain undetected by whatever she thought might see her. She began to drool at the sight before her.

She had finally found it, that arsenal of weapons that had bugged her mind the past day and night. So far, she could only spy one of the two weapons she had so eagerly wanted to study. She had found the large shoulder-mounted weapon the sleeveless man had decimated a Deathstalker with. Up close, it looked as if it had just been delivered from heaven, a spotlight of holy light shining down upon the marvel of weaponry laid onto a table in front of her.

A slow stream of saliva escaped her mouth as it hung agape. Her eyes locked on the weapon's intricate designs, examining each and every visible part of the weapon before her gaze finally settled on Old Glory. Her eyes quickly moved on from Old Glory as she reached out to cradle the weapon in her hands, only to find herself unable to lift the device from its place on the table. She tried multiple times to lift the weapon, only to receive the same result as she had received previously.

Ruby eventually gave up on lifting the rocket launcher and instead tried to push her fingers around the mechanical parts of the weapon, intent on studying it as much as she could.

After nearly thirty minutes, she gave up trying to examine the weapon, deciding it would be easier if she saw it in action with someone who could actually lift it. That was a question that crossed her mind, 'How did he lift this thing!? It's so heavy!'

She moved on to find the weapon that the armoured one had used, 'Six, I think his name was…'

She was overly pleased to find the second weapon on her mental list, 'the green rifle that shot green blobs'

Much like the rocket launcher, it too looked much more aesthetically pleasing in person, though it still retained the appearance of an improvised weapon thrown together with a multitude of random parts.

The rifle looked a great deal simpler up close and Ruby could predict how the weapon worked.

Ruby Rose would marvel over the weapon for the next fifteen or so minutes, before deciding that she should get one of the new people to show her how it worked when she couldn't work it herself, much like the rocket launcher, but she could just barely pick this one up.

Much against her body's judgement, her mind told her to refrain from intruding further. She would have to leave before she was found out, but not without taking a small souvenir first.

They wouldn't notice, right?

"The Mojave Wasteland?" Blake asked, splitting her gaze between the three Wastelanders, "Why is it called that?"

Six put a hand to his forehead, mumbling, "Oh God, they really don't know Earth…"

Joshua Graham decided to take up the conversation, "The Mojave is a desert. It was turned into a wasteland after the bombs fell."

"Bombs?" Yang diverted her attention from Six to Joshua

"The Great War. Whole world blew itself up with nuclear missiles. World turned into a wasteland after that."

Six decided to move the conversation along, "Alright, next question."

Weiss was next to state her mind, "What's that?" she asked, gesturing to the device on Six's wrist.

"This?" Six said, holding up his arm and showing his Pip-Boy, "This is a Pip-Boy 3000. Keeps tabs on my vitals, radiation levels, inventory, karma level, location, etcetera."

"What's a… radiation level?" Yang questioned prompting Six to adopt a confused look on his face.

"You don't know what radiation is? Do you even know what nukes are?"

A chorus of shaking heads as Six thought.

"Well… I suppose if you don't have nuclear weapons… yeah, makes sense you don't know what radiation is… but seriously though, it's kinda basic science. You know, alpha radiation, beta radiation, stuff like that?"

More shaking heads.

"You don't know what electromagnetic waves are?"

Only two shaking heads this time.

"What the hell do they teach you kids!?" Six threw his hands up dramatically to express his confusion. "Hang on a minute," he pointed to Blake, "You didn't shake your head. You know what EMR is?"

Nod

"Praise the Lord!" More dramatic throwing of hands in the air whilst the five others looked at him questionably, though more Yang, Weiss and Blake than Joshua Graham and Ulysses, "They're slightly intelligent!"

Ulysses felt the need to take over, "You do not have nuclear warheads?"

"No idea what that is!" Yang perked up for some reason

"Damn," Six started, "You guys really are the Pacifists you look like…"

"You have more questions?" Joshua turned his attention from Six to the girls, Blake spoke their next question.

"Where exactly is this 'Mojave Wasteland', we've never heard of it before. What kingdom is it in?" She asked

Six replied with, "Bum fuck nowhere, that's where. I'm gettin' a feeling you aren't really familiar with any of…" He gestured to himself and his companions, "This."

"We've never seen anyone like you before, who are you with?" Yang asked

"Who are we with? Well, faction wise," His eyes caught a glance of Ulysses, who made subtle body movements that suggested 'make something up'

"We are all part of a tribe known as the Dead Horses," he lied, using Joshua Graham's tribe as filler for a faction, "But we are each our own people, as you can tell by our separate clothing choices, though this isn't really considered 'clothing' around here, is it?" He looked his armor over.

"Why are you here?" Weiss spoke up for the second time.

Six looked over to Joshua.

"The Lord has sent us here," Joshua started, "Promised us something new, a clean slate, as you may say."

"How did you… get here?" Yang asked

"Simple," Six replied, "We walked."

"And your… God… gave you directions?"

"Not at all. I heard rumours. Picked these two up when I decided to look for… this place." He gestured outwards and Ulysses decided to pick up the conversation.

"Word said 'go west', so we went, through cracked landscapes to find a sleeping world." Ulysses said

Joshua then added his part, "I believe that God has sent us a quiet message, given us a chance to redeem ourselves."

"Redeem yourselves?" Weiss began to take interest in the conversation now, "What did you do?"

"When you live in a world as harsh as ours, you do despicable things to keep your own life, things the Lord doesn't smile upon. I am no exception…" Joshua's tone remained the same through his sentence.

"You have quite strong religious beliefs," Blake gathered a small amount of interest in In Joshua Graham.

"I was a missionary before I became what I am today."

"Ooh, a story. Tell us more!" Yang perked up before Six butted in to the conversation.

"Woah woah woah," he started, "We talked about this and we all agreed that we won't be telling our life stories to you guys. We don't really trust everyone here yet, and besides, our lives aren't exactly happy campfire stories, hell, they're even more fucked up than some of those shitty horror stories…" Six began to trail off.

"Do you know what the White Fang is?" Blake asked, Ulysses was first to answer

"Faunus civil-rights protesting group. Changed their ways when a new leader stood to authority. Seem to be under control." He answered

"What's your opinion on them?"

"Misguided men and women looking to find something buried under mountains of dirt and rocks. Just a thorn in the world's side, nothing to be taken seriously, but something to be observed." Was Ulysses' answer, and Blake would speak no more.

"What about your weapons?" Yang asked

"Our weapons are fairly standard." Six started, "Providing you watched our initiation, you would've seen the rifle Joshua was using. Belonged to a man named Randall Clark, or 'The Father in the Cave' to our tribe and another. Called it the Survivalist's Rifle. The rocket launcher, Red Glare, is a prototype. Thirteen rockets in three seconds, fully automatic.

"My weapon is a standard Plasma Rifle, mass produced, widely used, high-tech weaponry. Anything else?" Six concluded

"What about that armor?" Weiss asked, pointing to Six. Six slipped his helmet back over his head, eyes flickering from a dead grey to a strong red.

"Found it." Was his simple reply, "Earned it. Comes with night vision included. Saved my life more times than I could account for. I owe everything to this hunk of leather, all my respect. Now that reminds me, we have something we need to attend to, so if you would excuse us." Six nodded to his comrades and the three rose from their seats in the hall.

The three would slowly make their way out of the hall, eyed by the hundreds who were present in the room. Silence bestowed itself upon the room for a short matter of seconds, but noise quickly gathered as the students returned to their daily conversations, conversing about whatever it was they conversed about.

There was even a few hushed whispers opposing the three newcomers, but they were yet to be heard.